"What is it?" ventured Gloriana timidly, the morning's foreboding gripping her anew.

"She has broken her leg."

"Broken her leg!" repeated the red-haired girl dully.

"Broken her leg!" echoed mystified Susie.

"Who? Mamma?"

"Miss Davis."

"Holy snakes!"

"Why, Susie!"

"I mean—I—I—that just slipped out accidental. I was so s'prised at wondering what we'd do with a broken-legged woman hopping around here."

"But she won't be hopping around here," Tabitha grimly told her. "She must stay flat on her back in bed for three weeks, and then it will be days and days before she can get around without a crutch."

"Then—who—will housekeep—for us?" gasped Susie. "I reckon it is up to you to stay a while longer. Mrs. Goodale's grand-baby's got the fever and she is going to stay in Carson City until he's well. He is the only grandbaby she's got."

"How did you hear that?" demanded Tabitha, her heart sinking within her at Susie's words.

"Don't we know the Goodales well? She has only one girl, and that girl has only one baby."

"Oh, I didn't mean that! Where did you hear that the baby was sick?"

"Mr. Porter told us at the station. He has just got home from Carson City, and he saw Mrs. Goodale there. Why don't you read mamma's letter? You hain't looked at it yet."

Tabitha had completely forgotten the second envelope, and now hurriedly drew out the written page and scanned the blurred, uneven lines. Then without a word of explanation, she slipped the paper back into its envelope, and dropped it into her pocket, saying only, "Let the children have their dinner now. Everything is ready."

But all through the meal she was unusually preoccupied, puzzling, pondering, struggling, longing to be alone with herself, and yet held to her post by her sense of duty. At last, however, the hungry appetites were satisfied, the chattering children had gone back to their play, the dishes were washed and piled away in the cupboard, and Tabitha slipped away to the little room which she shared with Gloriana and Janie, knowing that no one would molest her here as long as the lame girl stood guard at the door.

Once alone, she spread the two letters out on the bed before her and read and re-read them until she knew both word for word.

Only one course lay open to her, that was plain; but yet her heart rebelled hotly against the circumstances which made this one course the only right one.

"There never was such a girl for getting into scrapes,", she groaned. "And this time I've not only got myself into one, but Gloriana as well. It will be six weeks at the very least before Miss Davis can come home, and there is no telling when Mrs. Goodale will be back. It is out of the question for Mrs. McKittrick to leave her husband just when he needs her most, even though she does offer to come. No, it's up to me, as Susie says. And I did want to go to Catalina with Myra so much! Here's my whole summer spoiled just because of a hasty promise.

"Tabitha Catt! Aren't you ashamed of yourself! You know right well that Mrs. McKittrick never could have gone to the city if you hadn't taken charge of her children, and the chances are that Mr. McKittrick would have died without her. He isn't wholly out of danger even yet. You selfish wretch! What do you think of a person who will talk the way you have been doing? Oh, dear, what a queer world it is! I wouldn't mind so much if Gloriana didn't have to suffer, too; but it is too bad to keep her here on the boiling desert when she might be enjoying life on the Island or at the beach. It wouldn't be so bad if those awful boys weren't here, either; but they are the limit. I am on edge every minute of the day, looking for the next outbreak. I don't believe they can be good. And yet—there's no other way—out of it. I can't let Mrs. McKittrick come home just because I am too utterly selfish to stay here myself. She has been so good to me. And it is positively out of the question for her to have the children with her."

Undecided, rebellious, unhappy, Tabitha crossed the room to the window, and stood looking out over the barren mountainside. Should she? Could she? What ought she to do? On the other side of a little gully just opposite the window, sat Irene, rocking to and fro on a teetering stone, and singing in a high, sweet treble to a battered rag-doll, hugged tightly to her breast. The words floated up to the girl in the window, indistinct at first, but growing clearer as the singer forgot her surroundings; and Tabitha suddenly found herself listening to the queer, garbled words of the song that fell from the childish lips.

"What in creation does she think she is singing?" she asked herself in amazement, recognizing with a fresh pang the tune Gloriana had begun the day with.

Irene finished the verse and commenced again:

"Maxwellton breaks her bonnet, And nearly swallows two, An' 'twas their hat and her locket Gave me a pummy stew. Gave me a pummy stew Which near forgot can be, And for bonnet and a locket I'd lame a downy deed."

Three times she repeated the distorted version of that grand old song, and somehow the frown of perplexity smoothed itself from the listener's brow.

"Dear little girl," she whispered; "it's your father and your mother! I am a selfish old heathen! Of course I will stay as long as I am needed!"

Quietly returning to the kitchen where Gloriana sat pretending to sew, she laid the mother's letter on the table before the seamstress, and when the gray eyes had read the message and glanced inquiringly up at the dark face beside her, Tabitha nodded her head. "Yes," she half-whispered. "I can't desert them now." Then after a moment of silence, she added, "But you will go with Myra, Glory. Please! I'd feel so much better, knowing that you were having a good time."

The red head shook a vigorous denial. "I shall stay with you," Gloriana declared. "I knew you wouldn't leave here as long as you were needed, and you needn't think I'll let you stay alone. I shouldn't have a good time at all if I did such a thing as that, Tabitha."

"But it may mean all summer," Tabitha protested. "And it does get so hot here. Besides, there will be little fun in such a vacation."

"Then it is up to us to make some fun," said Gloriana firmly.

"That's so," Tabitha replied, startled at the thought. "Maybe the boys wouldn't be such trials then. Let's try it!"

"All right," agreed Gloriana.

And straightway the two girls put their heads together to devise some method of breaking the deadly monotony of the desert days, and bringing added enjoyment to their troublesome charges.



CHAPTER VI

GLORIANA'S BURGLARS

There was a glorious moon that night, and as the girls were washing the supper dishes, Tabitha proposed, "Let's go up to the peak when we are through here and watch the moon rise."

There was a moment of dead silence in the room. Usually the two inexperienced young housekeepers sought to hustle their restless, boisterous brood into bed as soon as the evening meal had ended and the night's chores were done. What had come over her to suggest such a thing as an evening stroll, or climb, as it would be if they went up to the peak? Susie looked at Tabitha with incredulous eyes, then glanced questioningly at Mercedes, but the older sister was as much mystified as were the rest.

"Do you mean that, or are you joking?" demanded Irene bluntly.

"I mean it," replied Tabitha calmly, though her face flushed uncomfortably under the surprised stare of eight pair of eyes.

"You usually chase us off to bed, you know," said Susie, still wondering what the unexpected proposal meant.

"Well, it is such a lovely night, I thought it would be fun to follow the trail to the top of the mountain, and watch the moon come up."

"And tell stories?" breathed Irene, clasping her hands ecstatically.

"Yes, if you wish," laughed the senior housekeeper.

"And speak pieces!" cried Mercedes, who was never tired of hearing Tabitha recite.

"Perhaps."

"And sing songs," suggested Rosslyn, who loved to listen to Gloriana's rich, sweet voice carolling joyous lays or softly crooning lullabyes.

"Maybe."

"And build a bonfire to roast—" began Billiard, but paused, remembering that it was too early for green corn yet, and not being able to think of anything else roastable.

"Mosquitoes," finished Toady mischievously.

But Tabitha's face clouded anxiously. "I am afraid we'll have to let the bonfire go this time," she said gravely. "There is a law against such things here in Silver Bow. A fire is such a hard thing to fight on the desert, supposing it once gets started; so no one takes any risks."

Toady's face fell and Billiard looked rebellious, seeing which, Tabitha hastily continued, "Some day we will go down to the river——"

"Oh, and have a picnic!" squealed Susie, giving such an eager little hop of anticipation that the cup she was drying flew out of her hand and half-way across the room, falling with a dull thud in a pan of bread sponge which Tabitha had just been mixing.

"My!" breathed Irene enviously, "I wish my dishes would do that! When I drop one it always bu'sts."

Her peculiar grievance, coupled with Susie's look of utter amazement at the performance of her cup, caused a merry laugh all around, and the subject of bonfire was speedily forgotten, to Tabitha's unbounded relief.

The dishes were soon washed and piled away in the cupboard, the evening chores completed, and the troop of eager children romped gaily up the rocky trail to the summit of the mountain, on which the Eagles' Nest was built. It was just such a night as Tabitha loved, and she would gladly have sat in silence the whole evening through, watching the barren landscape lying glorified in the white moonlight; but not so with the younger members of the party. To be sure, it was a pretty picture that the old moon revealed to their eyes, but even the most beautiful pictures cannot hold a child's attention long. It is excitement that they desire; so scarcely had the party reached their goal than Inez demanded imperiously, "Now Tabitha, speak something for us."

"Oh, not right away," protested the older girl, glancing wistfully about her at the beauties of the night, and longing for a few moments of solitude that she might enjoy herself in her own peculiar fashion. "Let's watch the moon come up."

"No," clamored the boys, who had heard Tabitha's many talents lauded by their cousins until their curiosity had well-nigh reached the bursting point. "Speak right away. It's no fun watching the old moon come up! Besides, it's high enough now to make things as plain as day."

"Suppose you recite something first, then," suggested Gloriana, noting the wistfulness in the big, black eyes of her new sister.

"Not on your tin-type!" Billiard emphatically declared. "It's ladies first, you know! We want Tabitha to spiel."

"Well, then, what shall it be?" sighed that young lady resignedly.

"Something with ginger in it," was Toady's prompt reply. "Not a sissy-girl piece."

"About a battle or a prize-fight," suggested Billiard with amusing impartiality.

"Barbara Fritchie," put in eager Irene.

"No, don't," cried Susie. "We've heard that so often. Speak Sheridan's Ride."

"Or Driving Home the Cows," suggested Mercedes. "I think that is so pretty, and it is a war piece, too."

"But it is too sad," promptly vetoed Susie. "We want something—noisy."

"With cannons and guns," seconded the boys.

So Tabitha obligingly recited the thrilling lines:

"'Up from the South at break of day, Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay, The affrighted air with a shudder bore, Like a herald in haste, to the chieftain's door, The terrible grumble, and rumble, and roar, Telling the battle was on once more, And Sheridan twenty miles away.'"

And her thoughts flew back to that black day in the dingy old town hall, when she had declaimed those very lines, and of the dire punishment which had overtaken her; but the sting of it was all gone now, and she found herself smiling at the recollection of that fateful encore. Everything was so different these days. She could afford to forget the old heartaches and longings in the happiness which had come to her during the past year.

"'Here is the steed that saved the day By carrying Sheridan into the fight, From Winchester, twenty miles away!'"

she finished; and before the enthusiastic audience realized that the recitation was ended, she began Horatius at the Bridge. Then followed in quick succession all the thrilling wartime pieces at her tongue's command, while the delighted children held their breath in wondering admiration.

Breathless at length, she paused, and surveying the circle of faces about her, said whimsically, "That's a plenty, I reckon. My throat is as dry as the desert!"

"Just one more!" they pleaded eagerly.

"But I have spoken all I can think of now with guns and cannons in them."

"Then give us a different kind," wheedled Irene, in her most persuasive tones.

"That one you spoke May Day at Ivy Hall," suggested Mercedes, "when you tumbled off the platform."

"Tumbled off the platform?" echoed the boys in great surprise. This was an adventure which had never been recounted to them. "How did she tumble off the platform? Tell us about it."

Tabitha merely laughed and shook her head, but Mercedes, elated at the opportunity of singing the praises of her idol, regaled them with a laughable description of Tabitha's mishap. This led to other boarding school reminiscences,—the christening of the vessel, when Cassandra took her memorable plunge into the ocean; the night of the opera and their experiences with the runaway ostriches; the voice of the mysterious singer in the bell-tower, which some of the more timid students had mistaken for a ghost; and finally, the appearance of the Ivy Hall ghost itself. The McKittrick girls had heard all these events recounted so often that they knew them almost by heart; but, nevertheless, they were never tired of listening, and drank in the stories of all those delightful mishaps with almost as much eagerness as was displayed by Billiard and Toady, hearing them for the first time.

But all frolics come to an end, and Tabitha at length roused with a start to announce, "That clock struck ten, I am positive."

"What clock?"

"Yours. The one in the kitchen. We were unusually quiet, I reckon, for I was able to count ten strokes. We must fly into bed as fast as we can get there. I had no idea it was so late, although Janie and Rosslyn have been snoozing for ages. Come on, let's march. See who can get to the house first."

Away they scampered as hard as they could run down the rough path, while Tabitha and Glory wrestled with the two little sleepers, trying to rouse them from their slumber so they might walk down to the cottage instead of having to be carried. But Rosslyn refused to waken thoroughly, and created such a scene that it was some minutes before they could coax him to follow them down the trail. So when they entered the moonlit kitchen, leading the stumbling boy and carrying Janie, who could not keep her eyes open or her feet under her, the rest of the family had vanished completely.

"Can they be in bed already?" asked Tabitha in surprise. "Have we been wrestling with those children so long?"

Gloriana tiptoed across the floor and opened the door to the room where the four sisters slept, and disclosed four flushed faces peacefully reposing on their pillows. Mercedes and Irene were already fast asleep, and the other two so near the land of Nod that their eyes merely fluttered open for an instant at the sound of the opening door, and then drowsily fell again.

Satisfied, Gloriana turned to Tabitha, busy trying to slip Rosslyn's nightgown over his limp body, and whispered, "All serene!"

"Then skip off to bed," said the other girl. "I will bring Janie when I come."

"But——"

"Oh, it is just the bread. I want to knead it down once more. It won't take me half a jiffy, but if I don't do it now, it will be all over the floor by morning."

So Gloriana crept wearily away to her room, for it had been a long, hard, disappointing day, but a moment later she scurried back into the kitchen; and when Tabitha wheeled about in surprise at her hasty entrance, she laughed nervously, half apologetically, "I kicked someone's shoes under the bed! Don't know whether they are my own or a burglar's!"

Knowing how timid the red-haired girl still felt on the desert at night, Tabitha refrained from smiling at what seemed an uncalled-for fright, and said reassuringly, "No burglars ever visit Silver Bow. There is nothing in a miner's shack to tempt them."

"I should think there would be plenty of gold nuggets," answered Gloriana in surprise.

"Not many in Silver Bow houses, I reckon," Tabitha placidly replied, "But if you are afraid to go to bed alone, you better wait for me. I'll be ready in a minute."

She did not mean to speak scornfully, for she sympathized heartily with the sensitive gain remembering with what horror the desert nights used to fill her when Silver Bow first became her home. But Gloriana thought she detected a hint of ridicule in her companion's voice, and hurriedly departed for their room once more, saying with a great show of bravado, "Oh, I'm not afraid! Come to think of it, I believe I left my slippers at the foot of the bed, and that is probably what I hit."

The door closed behind her again, and Tabitha, smiling sympathetically at the girl's attempt at bravery, began to cover the mound of soft, white dough in the huge pan, when a wild, unearthly shriek echoed through the house, followed by the sharp crack of a pistol, and the muffled fall of a body.

For one brief instant Tabitha stood rooted to the spot, fairly paralyzed with horror. Then the thought of Glory gave wings to her feet, and, heedless of her own danger, she flew for the scene of disaster, whispering to herself, "Oh, why did I leave the house unlocked all the evening while we were gone?"

As the door of her room swung back on its hinges, the first thing her eyes fell upon was the flickering, smoking, chimneyless lamp standing on the low dresser; and even in her terror she wondered how it chanced that careful Glory had neglected to protect the light properly. The next object that met her gaze was Glory herself, leaning white and limp against the closet door, holding a battered, smoking pistol at arm's length from her.

"Glory, are you hurt?" she gasped.

"No!"

"But the gun—the shot——"

"No one's shot—only the lamp chimney! I aimed at the—the burglars under the bed, and shot off the lamp chimney," she panted, beginning to laugh hysterically, and tightening her grasp on the rusty gun.

"Where is the burglar?" Intrepidly she stooped and peered under the bed, half expecting to see the disturber of their peace still hiding there.

"In the closet,—-both of them!"

"Two?"

"Yes."

"Oh, Glory!"

"They are locked in. Here is the key."

"I must go for the constable."

A scuffling sound suddenly issued from the closet, and Gloriana cried in terror, "And leave me here alone with them?"

"There is no other way. I'll be gone but a minute. They surely can't get loose in that time!" And she darted from the room without giving Gloriana opportunity for further objections.

Hardly had the sound of her racing footsteps died away in the distance, however, when the red-haired guard, leaning against the door, half dead with fear, was electrified at hearing a muffled voice call through the keyhole, "I say, Glory, let us out, do! We were just a-foolin'. Didn't you know 'twas us? Please don't turn us over to the sheriff!"

"'Twas Tabitha's story about the Ivy Hall ghost that made us think of it," pleaded Toady. "We ain't sure-enough burglars. We just meant to scare you a little bit."

"And you sure scared us enough to make up," coaxed Billiard. "Please let us out before Tabitha gets back. She said she'd write Uncle Hogan the next time we got into trouble."

"And that will mean he will take us away from here," wheedled Toady. "He's awful hard on a fellow."

"You deserve it!" suddenly answered Glory, with a grimness that startled even the girl herself.

"Then you won't let us out?" cried the boys in great dismay.

"I—I haven't decided yet," Gloriana was forced to admit.

"But Tabitha will be back directly."

"Yes, she's a swift runner. I don't think she will be gone long." Glory was beginning to enjoy the strange situation.

"Oh, Glory, don't keep us here, please! prayed Billiard desperately.

"We'll never play burglar again!" promised repentant Toady.

"No, it will be something else the next time," said their jailer heartlessly.

"If you'll just set us free this time, we'll be reg'lar sissy girls all the rest of the summer," they cried.

"You have promised so many times—" Glory began wearily.

"Oh, I can hear her coming!" cried Toady, half frantic at thought of the constable whom Tabitha had gone to summon.

Gloriana thought she could, also, and swiftly turning the key in the lock, she let the quaking prisoners out, urging them on with a violent push as they scurried past her, and hissing in their ears, "Scamper! If you aren't in bed when she gets here, she'll know you did it."

But they needed no urging. Their feet scarcely touched the floor, it seemed to Gloriana, as they made a mad rush for their room; and when Tabitha returned a moment later, alone, they lay tense and breathless under the coverlets of the cot.

"Glory!" they heard her ejaculate. "You let them get away from you!"

"I couldn't help it," replied the red-haired girl in excited tones. "Couldn't you get anyone? Wasn't the constable at home?"

"No, but he'll investigate as soon as——"

The rest of the sentence was lost in the slamming of a door; but the two culprits lay and quaked with fear long after the rest of the household was fast asleep, little dreaming that as soon as the door was tightly closed so they could no longer distinguish the voices, Glory had wheeled on Tabitha and giggled accusingly, "You knew all the time!"

"Not until I ran past their door and saw their bed was empty," whispered the black-haired girl with her hand over her mouth to stifle the laughter she could no longer suppress.

"What possessed you to keep on, then?'

"I surmised what would happen, and decided to scare them a little, too. So I crept around the house and listened to you talking with them. When they thought they heard me coming back, I concluded it was time I did put in appearance again; but I thought I'd die laughing to hear them scuttling into bed. Now I reckon the score is even!"

"Then you won't tell their Uncle this time?"

"I ought to."

"They've had a big punishment already, Puss."

"They deserve it."

"I—I scared them stiff when I shot."

"Poor girlie, and you were as badly scared yourself. My brave Glory!"

"Don't praise me, Kitty. I'm an awful coward. My teeth are chattering yet."

"And you are trembling as if you had the ague. Are you sure you're not hurt? I thought I heard something fall."

"The gun kicked and knocked me over," Gloriana admitted. "That is what gave the boys a chance to scramble into the closet. I didn't know it was Billiard and Toady then, because the bullet splintered the lamp chimney and I couldn't see real well."

"But you locked them in."

"Oh, that was easy! They were holding the door shut with all their might, and the only thing left to do was to turn the key in the lock. I am so thankful it was only a prank!"

"So am I," Tabitha admitted grudgingly. "But I can't say I relish that class of pranks."

"Give them another chance, Tabitha. I think they really are trying to be good."

"Well, I'll—see. We'll forget all about it now and go to sleep. Morning can't be very far off."



CHAPTER VII

TOADY AND THE CASTOR BEANS

But when morning dawned, Gloriana lay flushed and feverish upon her pillow, her head throbbing until she could scarcely open her eyes. Tabitha was alarmed, and between her worry over the sick girl lying in their darkened room, and her ministrations to croupy Janie, who had caught cold sleeping in the night air on the mountain top, the poor housekeeper was so nearly distracted that she had little time to devote to the rest of her large family, and they wandered about the premises like so many disconsolate chicks who had lost their mother. It was an ideal time to get into mischief, and yet something restrained them.

The girls, it seemed, had slept through all the racket of the previous night, and were not aware that anything out of the ordinary had occurred, but they could not understand the tense atmosphere; and when Mercedes heroically tried to fill Tabitha's place the other members of the brood resented her authority, frankly found fault with her badly cooked oatmeal and unsalted potatoes, and insulted her attempts at housekeeping in such a heartless, unfeeling manner that she finally dissolved in tears and refused to do anything further toward their comfort. Susie and Inez quarreled over the dishes and had the sulks all day. The boys, still fearful of the consequences of their latest prank, and somewhat remorseful at having frightened Gloriana into a fever, wandered aimlessly away toward town, glad to escape from Tabitha's watchful eye, and greatly relieved to think no mention had been made by anyone of the burglars' visit.

"Guess the girls couldn't have heard the noise last night," ventured Toady, when they had left the house far enough behind to make it impossible for anyone to overhear their conversation.

"The girls?" repeated Billiard blankly, his thoughts on another phase of the situation.

"Mercedes and Susie and the twins, I mean."

"Oh! P'r'aps Tabitha's making 'em keep still."

"Do you think Tabitha knows we did it?" cried Toady in alarm.

"Naw, you ninny! That is, not 'nless Glory's gone and squealed."

"But——"

"I meant she'd prob'ly try to hush them up if they had heard our racket, so's the whole town wouldn't know about the burglars."

"Why? That's just what is worrying me. If she has hushed them up, it's just to make us believe she doesn't suspect. I'll bet the constable will be up there bright and early with his d'tectives, asking all sorts of questions, and everyone in Silver Bow will join in the hunt."

"Then we'll be found out even if Glory doesn't tell."

Toady nodded gloomily.

"It'll go hard with us if the constable should find out who did it."

Again Toady nodded.

"We—better—light—out—now."

Toady stopped stock-still in the roadway. "Why?" he demanded.

"Do you want to go to jail?"

"Naw, but they don't put kids in jail here. I s'pose likely we'd get a good thrashing——"

"Would you rather stay here and take a whaling than skip while you've got the chance?" cried Billiard, turning pale at the mere thought of such a punishment at the hands of a desert constable, who, somehow, in his imagination, had assumed the proportions and disposition of a monster.

"We—we deserve a sound licking," bravely replied Toady, whose conscience was troubling him sorely.

It was Billiard's turn to halt in the rocky road and stare with unbelieving eyes at his brother, finally finding vent for his feelings by hissing the single word, "Coward!"

"No more coward than you!" Toady denied. "We have been as mean as dirt ever since we came here, and if Tabitha had been as hateful as most girls are, she'd have written Uncle Hogan long ago."

"So you're fishing to get her to write, are you?"

"No, I ain't, but I believe she'd—like it—better—if we told her ourselves, instead of getting found out by someone else."

"Oh! Going to turn goody-goody, are you?" sneered Billiard, not willing to admit that he had been thinking similar thoughts.

Toady bristled. "I hate goody-goodies as bad as you do," he said, with eyes flashing. "But I'm going to own up to my part in last night's racket. We might have scared Glory to death."

"Pooh! You make me sick! Suppose you think she'll let you off easy if you squeal. Well, go ahead, tattler! You will change your mind maybe, when she writes to Uncle Hogan."

"If she wants to write Uncle Hogan, let her write!" screamed the exasperated Toady, stung by his brother's taunts. "I'm going to quit bothering them right here and now; and what's more, I'm going to own up, too."

"Tattler!"

Toady turned on his heel and strode haughtily away, not daring to trust himself to further speech.

"Coward! 'Fraid cat! Sissy girl!" jeered Billiard.

That was the last straw. The younger boy wheeled about and retraced his steps in a slow, ominous manner. Thrusting his angry face close to Billiard's, and shaking his clenched fist under his nose, he said quietly, "Say that again if you dare, Williard McKittrick!"

Billiard was delighted. He had succeeded in making Toady mad, and now he would have the pleasure of thrashing him. He felt just like pounding someone.

"Coward! 'Fraid cat! Sis——"

A white fist shot out with accurate aim, striking the bully squarely between the eyes. A shower of stars danced merrily about him, blood spurted from his nose, and the next thing he knew, he was stretched flat on the rocky ground, with a grim-faced Toady bending over him.

"Do you take it back?" a menacing voice was asking.

"You—you—" spluttered the angry victim, mopping his streaming nose with his coat sleeve.

"Or do you want some more?" The doubled-up fist drew perilously near the disfigured face in the gravel.

"That's it! Hit a fellow when he's down!" taunted the fallen bully, still unable to realize just what had happened.

"I shan't hit you while you're down," said Toady calmly but decisively. "I'll let you get onto your pins and then I'll knock them from under you again."

And Billiard, looking up into the determined face above him, knew that it was no idle threat. Toady was in deadly earnest, but still the older boy temporized. It would never do to give in to Toady. If he took such a step as that, his leadership was gone forever. "Aw, come off!" he began, in what he meant to be jocular tones. "Quit your fooling and let me up! I've swallowed a bucket of blood already!"

"Will you take it back, or shall I pummel the stuffing out of you?"

Billiard capitulated. "I take it back," he said sullenly, "but,"—as Toady removed his knees from his chest and allowed him to rise—"I'll get even with you for this."

"All right," responded the younger boy cheerfully. "But don't forget that you will get what's coming to you, too."

"Don't be so sure, sonny! You took me off guard; you know you did, or you'd never have laid me out. You weren't fair."

Toady, tasting his first victory over his bully brother, and finding it very sweet, suggested casually, "I'll scrap you any time you say. Now, if you like."

"My head aches too bad," said the other hastily. "That was a nasty place to fall. It's a wonder it didn't fracture my skull."

Toady looked back at the spot which Billiard had adorned a moment before, and remorse overtook him. "I'm sorry, old chap, if I hurt you," he said contritely. "I wasn't aiming to put you out of business, but you made me so all-fired mad——"

"Aw, forget it! I was just fooling," protested Billiard, shamed by Toady's frank and manly confession. "Say, ain't that the haunted house the girls are always talking about?"

"Which? Maybe 'tis. It's the last one in town, they said. Mercy promised to point it out the next time we climbed the trail behind the house. Do you s'pose it really is haunted?"

"I dunno," Billiard answered indifferently.

Haunted houses in his opinion were things to be avoided. He had merely sought to distract Toady's thoughts from their fistic encounter by mentioning the place. But the younger boy's curiosity was aroused, and as they neared the deserted, unpainted, dilapidated hut, he studied it closely. To him it looked like any other untenanted shack in the mining town, and so he said musingly, "I wonder if that man really did kill himself there, or was he murdered?"

Billiard shivered. "Mercedes said he died there. That's all I know."

"She told me he was found dead, with all his pockets turned inside out, and——"

"Oh, Toady," interrupted Billiard again, "here's a plant just like those mamma always has in her garden. I didn't s'pose things like that would grow here on the desert."

"That's a castor bean."

"Like they make castor oil of?"

"Sure! At least, I guess so. Glory told me it's the only thing green on the desert that the burros won't eat. Folks could have flowers here the same as back home if water didn't cost so much, and the burros didn't eat the plants as fast as they came up."

"It's the first castor bean I've seen here."

"Why, there's a whole bunch down by the drug-store! We've passed them dozens of times. Where are your eyes?"

Billiard's face flushed wrathfully. Toady's recent victory had made him suddenly very important and domineering, but his fists were certainly hard enough to deal a telling blow; so the older boy, still caressing his swollen, aching nose, thought it wise to overlook such sarcastic flings, and, pretending to be deeply interested in the queer-leaved plant, he casually asked, "Do they all have such funny burrs on them?"

"When they're big enough. That's where the castor beans themselves grow."

Billiard gingerly picked one of the strange balls and minutely examined the hooked prickles of the reddish covering. Then with his jack-knife he proceeded to investigate the inside. "Do you s'pose they really make castor oil out of these? I don't see how they can."

"Glory says they do."

"The insides smell something like castor oil, but they don't look at all oily."

"I'll bet they taste oily."

"Stump you to eat one!"

"Huh! It doesn't bother me to take castor oil. I can eat anything!" To prove his boast, he plumped one white bean into his mouth, and chewed it down with apparent relish.

Billiard watched him with eagle eyes to see that he actually did swallow it, then held out another, and Toady obediently munched it. Three, four, five,—bean by bean they disappeared down his throat; but at last he rebelled.

"You hain't tasted one, Billiard McKittrick! How many do you think you are going to feed me?"

The brother laughed derisively. "Wanted to see how big a fool you was," he jeered. "Thought you were going to eat all there were on the bush."

Toady made no reply. The beans tasted anything but appetizing, and already the boy was beginning to feel queer.

"Sure you don't want some more?" teased Billiard.

"No. Guess I'll go home."

"And tat—tell about last night?" Billiard remembered all at once the reason they were so far from the Eagles' Nest, and was alarmed lest Toady's threatened confession should involve him also.

"Y-e-s."

"I think you're downright mean, Toady McKittrick!"

"I shan't tell on you."

"Might as well! They will know I was in it."

"And you know you ought to own up, too."

"Cut it out, good—Toady. If you won't tell, I'll not plague them—nor you—any more."

Toady silently plodded on, and in exasperation Billiard caught him by the shoulder and shook him roughly.

"Le' go!" muttered the boy. "I'm going home, I tell you! Ge' out my way!"

The white misery of that round, freckled face as it turned toward him struck terror to the older brother's heart, and he excitedly demanded, "What's the matter, kid? Are you sick?"

"Feel funny," panted the castor-bean victim. "I—want—to—lie—down."

"Let's hurry then. We'll soon be home." Billiard was genuinely alarmed now, and seizing the other's cold hand, he tried to hasten the lagging steps up the rocky trail. But Toady was really too ill to care what happened or where he went, and he stumbled blindly on, tripping over a loose pebble here, or bruised by staggering into a boulder there, protesting one minute that he could go no further, and the next instant begging Billiard to hurry faster.

At length, however, the house was reached, and Toady drifted like a crumpled leaf across the threshold and lay down in the middle of the floor. Irene had seen them coming, and rushed pell-mell for Tabitha, shrieking in horrified accents, "Kitty, oh, Kitty, they've been to a s'loon and got drunk!"

So Tabitha was somewhat prepared for their dramatic entrance; but one glance at the livid lips, pinched nose and heavy, lusterless eyes would have convinced her that Irene was mistaken, even if Billiard had not caught the words and indignantly denied it. However, recalling a certain episode in Jerome Vane's life in Silver Bow, she demanded severely, "How many cigarettes has he smoked, Billiard McKittrick?"

"He hain't been smoking at all!" declared that young gentleman, more ruffled at Tabitha's tone than at her accusation. "He—he—I dared him to eat some castor-beans, and I guess they made him sick."

"Castor-beans!" shrieked Tabitha in wild alarm. "Go for the doctor at once. Dr. Hayes at the drug-store! Tell him it's castor-beans. He worked all night to save the Horan children who ate them once."

Billiard had shot out of the door before the words were out of her mouth and was half-way down the trail before the dazed girl awoke with a start to the realization that something must be done at once for the suffering boy on the floor, or it might be too late. "We must make him vomit," she said to red-eyed Mercedes, who had come out of her hiding-place to see what was the cause of all the commotion.

"But how?"

"I don't know myself what emetic would be best. They use mustard and warm water for some poisons, and—oh, I remember! Bring me that three-cornered, blue bottle from the cupboard, Susie. Hurry! Your mother told me to use plenty of that if any of you got poisoned. Mercedes, light the stove and set on the tea kettle. Inez, get the boy's bed ready, and Irene, bring some clean towels from the closet."

Tabitha had suddenly grown calm again, and as she issued orders to the panic-stricken sisters, she was deftly at work herself, pouring the vile-tasting emetic down poor, unresisting Toady's throat. She worked hard and furiously, fearful that her efforts might fail, and her heart sank within her as she watched the white face grow whiter and listened to the weak moans which escaped his lips with every breath.

Would the doctor never come? The suspense was horrible. When it seemed as if she must scream with frenzy, the five watchers on the door-step shouted wildly, "He's coming, he's coming! Billiard found him and he's got his v'lise!"

Another instant and he was in the kitchen kneeling beside the limp form on the floor, and working as he questioned. It was over at last, the boy was pronounced out of danger, and Tabitha, weak and trembling, felt her strength suddenly ooze from her limbs.

"Here, here, none of that!" commanded the physician in gruff but kindly tones. "There is no use of fainting now, my girl, when you have done your work so well. But for your efforts before I got here, the chap might have been—well, he can thank his lucky stars that he is in the land of the living."

Perhaps Toady heard, for when Tabitha bent over him a few moments later, the brown eyes fluttered weakly open, and the repentant sinner murmured, "How is Glory?"

"Better. She will be well by morning. But you mustn't talk now."

"Yes, I must, 'cause I made her sick. I burgled—that is, I pretended I was a burglar last night and hid under your bed. I only meant to scare you, though. Honest!"

"Sh! I know all about it. Go to sleep now, Toady." When seeing an unspoken question in his eyes, she answered, "No, Glory didn't give you away. I found it out myself."

"The constable——"

"I never went for him at all. He doesn't know a thing about it."

"Uncle Hogan—I expect you'd better write him. It was awful mean of me, and I'm sorry, but he ought to know."

"Not this time, Toady. I am sure you will not forget again."

A great light of relief crept into the big, brown eyes, and Toady answered with all the vim he could muster, "You are right, I won't."



CHAPTER VIII

BILLIARD RUNS AWAY

Billiard, white, scared, remorseful, had crept away up the mountainside the minute he had seen Dr. Hayes bending beside the still form on the kitchen floor, and remained in his retreat, watching the house with frightened eyes, until the physician's bulky figure strode down the path toward town again. Then, flinging himself face down in the gravel, he sobbed in unrestrained relief, until, exhausted by the strain of his recent fearful experience, he fell asleep in the shadow of a ragged boulder, where late that afternoon Tabitha found him, after a vain search about house and yard.

Surprised at having caught a glimpse of this unsuspected side of the bully's character, she beat a hasty retreat, and with the tact of a diplomat, sent one of the younger girls in quest of him, feeling that he might resent being awakened by her while the trace of tears still showed on his face. Nor was she mistaken in this surmisal, for the instant the boy's eyes unclosed in response to Susie's energetic shaking, he demanded, "Does Tabitha—know where I am?"

"She wouldn't have set the rest of us to hunting if she had, would she?"

"Well, 'tain't necessary for you to tell her I was asleep. The sun was so hot it made my head ache, and I guess it has burned my face to a blister," cautiously touching his puffed, smarting cheeks.

Susie eyed the swollen lids and scarlet visage suspiciously, but for once held her tongue, only announcing briefly as she started on a trot down the trail, "We're waiting supper for you."

"Well, you needn't for I'm not hungry. Tell Tabitha I don't want anything to eat. I am going to bed. My head aches."

"All right," retorted Susie, too cheerfully, he thought with bitterness in his heart, as he followed her nimble feet toward the house. He had hoped she would at least express some sympathy for his aching head; but what did she care? What did anyone care about him? Morosely he shambled along behind his agile cousin; but instead of entering the kitchen, which was of necessity also the dining-room, he chose the front door, and quietly sought the room where he and his brother slept.

Toady's pale face on the pillow made him pause on the threshold, while a twinge of remorse tugged at his heart, but the victim, hearing the creak of the opening door, opened his round eyes, and smiling beatifically, asked in a weak voice, "Seen Tabitha?"

Billiard grunted an unintelligible reply.

"Tell you what, she's a crackerjack!" continued the invalid. Then, as Billiard's only answer was a vicious jerk which divested him of collar and waist at a single effort, Toady cried in surprise, "Why, Bill, have you had your supper?"

"Don't want any!" growled the other, tugging savagely at his boots.

"What's the matter? Sick?"

"Headache!"

"You didn't eat any castor-beans, did you?"

Billiard paused in the act of crawling into bed to glare angrily at his brother, thinking he was being made fun of; but Toady's cherubic face seemed to allay his suspicions, and he briefly, but savagely replied, "Naw!"

"You better tell Tabitha—" began Toady in genuine solicitude; but Billiard again misconstrued his brother's meaning, and interrupted, "Aw, shut up! Let a feller alone for once, can't you?" And as Billiard wriggled into bed, puzzled Toady lapsed into silence.

Tabitha, too, was puzzled by the older boy's actions. She had hoped that the poisoning of his brother would awake his better nature if nothing else would, so she was keenly disappointed, as well as surprised, at the change which now took place in him.

"It seems so strange," she confided to Gloriana. "He acted so terribly cut up the day he brought Toady home sick, that I thought it would cure him of his mean mischief, at least. But now he seems bent on trying to find the limit of human endurance—doubling his mischief and being more aggravatingly hateful than ever."

"Perhaps he is getting even for Toady's reform," suggested the red-haired girl, looking worried.

"Toady—bless the boy!" exclaimed Tabitha fervently. "I should go wild if he had taken the streak Billiard has."

"And yet I can see how provoking it must be to Bill——"

"Why, Gloriana!"

"I mean that Toady's declaration of independence would naturally rouse Bill's 'mad,' as Rosslyn says, when Toady had blindly followed his leadership for so long. And besides, the way Toady flaunts his virtues in his brother's face——"

"That is rather amusing, isn't it?"

"Provoking? I should, say! Billiard has been used to saying the word and Toady has obeyed. It's rather a—a—jar, to be defied, or ignored all of a sudden. Bill is bright——"

"Too bright," sighed Tabitha, somewhat sarcastically, Gloriana thought.

"He is bright!" championed the younger girl warmly. "This morning I happened to overhear him teasing the girls at play under the kitchen window, and he declared that it was a mistake for Inez and Irene to be twins; that it should have been Susie and Inez, and then their names would have been Suez and Inez."

Tabitha smiled in spite of herself, then said heatedly, "But he is so mean about it! To-day while you were at the bakery and he thought I had gone for the mail, I heard a commotion in the yard, and what do you suppose I found him doing?"

Gloriana shook her head.

"He had the girls and Rosslyn lined up by the woodpile and was making them carry in his wood. Even little Janie was loaded down with two immense sticks, so heavy she could hardly toddle with them."

"What did you do?"

"Made them drop their loads right where they were, and he had to carry it all in by himself."

"Without even Toady's help?"

"All by himself!" repeated Tabitha emphatically.

"I am afraid—we are not apt—to——"

"To what?" asked Tabitha, as her companion stammered in confusion and paused abruptly.

"To gain anything—much of anything by trying to force Billiard into being good."

"How are we to make him mind, then? He won't coax. You can't flatter him into behaving himself, and threats don't do a mite of good. I think a smart dose of the hickory stick would be the most effective medicine for such cases as his."

Glory looked dubious.

"You don't agree with me?" suggested Tabitha.

"He is such a big boy to be thrashed," she evaded.

"He is such a big boy to act that way!"

"Yes, that's true, but——"

How she would have finished her sentence Tabitha never found out, for at that moment a piercing scream broke the stillness of the desert afternoon, followed by a medley of excited accusations, denials, threats, and Billiard's taunting laugh. Tabitha flew to the rescue of her brood and found Irene stretched full length in the gravel, with Mercedes and Toady deluging her with water, while the rest of the sisters danced frantically about the trio.

"He—he shot her!" cried Rosslyn indignantly, at sight of the slender figure in the doorway.

"I gave her fair warning," said defiant Billiard.

"Hand me your gun!" demanded Tabitha in exasperation, after a hasty examination of the victim had convinced her that Irene was more frightened than hurt.

"Gun! Ha, ha, ain't that rich?" mocked Billiard.

"'Twas a slingshot," volunteered Toady.

"And he shooted a rock," added Janie.

Tabitha held out her hand with an imperious gesture. "Pass it over quietly, or I shall make you."

Billiard calmly pocketed the article in dispute, and seeing that Irene was recovering under the heroic treatment of her amateur nurses, he seated himself in tantalizing silence upon the saw-horse, as if to enjoy the scene he had created. But his enjoyment was short lived. Tabitha, now thoroughly aroused, and forgetful of her dignity, swooped down upon the tormentor, wrested his slingshot from his grasp, and before anyone could divine her intentions, seized a barrel stave from the woodpile and gave the surprised boy a sound drubbing.

In the midst of the thrashing, there came vividly to her mind her childish horror of that day of reckoning with her father, when he had struck her with one of his slippers, and she recalled the fact that it was not the physical hurt, but the humiliation of the blow which had wounded her most deeply. Flinging down the stick, she released the struggling lad as suddenly as she had seized him; and in tones that sounded husky in spite of herself, briefly ordered, "Go to your room!"

Angry, stunned, shamed, Billiard bounced through the kitchen, slammed the door of his room, turned the key in the lock and—stood still in the middle of the floor. Whipped by a girl not four years his senior! Whipped by a girl! It was an unforgivable outrage. He would get even for that. But what was he to do? Would could he do? She had beaten him at every turn, she had set Toady against him, she had made him the laughing stock of his cousins. He—he—he would do something desperate. He would——

As if in answer to his thoughts, he heard a strange voice close beside the open window say, "Yes, he has run away. The inspector completed his job this morning, found Atwater's accounts five hundred dollars short, and he skipped."

"Who?" demanded Mercedes. "The post-master?"

"Yep! Lit out. Can't have been gone more'n an hour, but no one seems to have seen him anywhere around town, and they are scouring the country for him."

Billiard drew a deep breath. That was an idea. Why hadn't he thought of it before! He, too, would run away. Stealthily he crept to the little closet, selected a clean shirt, a pair of stockings, a necktie, and his pajamas, tied them up in a bath-towel, not having such a thing in his wardrobe as a bandana handkerchief, although he felt that this was an essential; and after a cautious survey of the premises to make sure that the children were nowhere near, he crawled out of the window, carefully shut the screen again, and darted swiftly down the steep, pathless incline on the west side of the house to the flat below. It was a hazardous undertaking, and at any other time he would have shrunk from attempting it, but in his unreasonable anger and desire for revenge, all else was forgotten; and he arrived at the sandy bottom breathless, badly scratched by the mesquite, and smarting from the prick of cactus thorns, but triumphant.

Pausing only long enough to shake his fist defiantly at the house on the cliff above, he made off across the desert as fast as his legs would carry him. His first idea had been to follow the railroad, but on second thought he concluded that he might easily be overtaken and brought back if he took that course. So after a brief survey of the pathless landscape, he decided to skirt the mountains in whose hollow lay the town of Silver Bow, and to strike off to the west, in the direction of a neighboring mining camp called Crystal City.

"If I should miss that place," he reasoned to himself, "I am sure to get somewhere. Perhaps to Los Angeles that Mercy goes so crazy about. Say, that's just the thing! It takes only about twelve hours to get there by train; I ought to be able to walk it in two days, and I'll join the navy. I always did want to be a sailor!"

So he trudged sturdily on through the heavy sand of the flats, building air castles and nursing his wrath, but paying little heed to the course he was taking, until with a shiver of alarm he discovered that the afternoon sun had set and the range of white-capped mountains which sheltered Crystal City was seemingly no nearer than when he had set out. He began to feel faint with hunger and thirst, and was appalled to think he had forgotten in his flight to pack any lunch in his small store of belongings, and was now what seemed miles from civilization, in the midst of the pathless desert with neither food nor drink, and night coming on.

Night! He shuddered. How could he have forgotten the night part of it? Where was he to stay? He was afraid of the desert darkness. Somehow, it always seemed blacker and stiller there than anywhere else on earth. But perhaps the moon would come up. That would be lots of company, and the weather was so warm that he would really enjoy sleeping out in the open air. Eagerly he scanned the evening sky, and perceiving that the east appeared to be growing lighter, his spirits began to rise. After all, he was not sorry he had run away. Wouldn't there be consternation in the Eagles' Nest when his absence was discovered? How Tabitha would regret her unwarranted harshness! And Toady—Toady would cry and snivel because he had deserted his dear, big brother in his hour of need. And searching parties would be sent all over the country to find him. How he gloated over the pictures his vivid imagination had drawn!

But all the while he stumbled on, it was growing darker, the landscape had become an indistinct blur, and night sounds filled the air. The lonely howl of a wolf in the distance sent a chill of fear down Billiard's spine; the scream of a night-hawk overhead made him jump almost out of his shoes, and he was just beginning to consider where he should lie down to sleep when a sudden scurry in the underbrush froze him in his tracks. The next minute, however, he laughed at his fright, for it was merely a mother burro and her baby colt which his steps had routed from their hiding-place and sent flying across the flats for safety. A twig snapping sharply under his feet startled him; what sounded like a warning hiss close by brought his heart into his mouth; and trembling from head to foot he paused by a clump of Spanish bayonets, uncertain what to do next.

Oh, if only he had not run away! If only he were sitting with the rest of the lively troop of children around the supper table! Or perhaps it was too late for supper now. More likely they would be preparing for bed. What frolics they had enjoyed in the evenings when Tabitha made taffy and recited stirring ballads to fill in the moments while the toothsome sweet was cooking. What exciting tales his cousins told of the brave, black-haired maid whom he was trying so hard to hate. He did hate her! That is, sometimes he did. But he could not help admiring her pluck, even though he stood in awe of the fierce temper that blazed up so quickly, and as quickly died away again. She was certainly a wonder for a girl. There was no 'fraid cat about her. He wished she liked him better. But how could she, when he was so tantalizing, mean and sly? Perhaps if he went back home, that is, to Aunt——

"Hands up! We've got you at last!" growled a stern voice almost in his ear, it seemed; and poor Billiard's hands shot high into the air, he shut his eyes, held his breath and waited for the end. But to his utter amazement, a second voice huskily replied, after an instant, "Yes, you've got me, boys. I knew it was no use to run away, but—I—couldn't bear—to stay—and know that everyone looked at me as a thief. I never took the money."

The moon, which had seemed so slow in rising, had finally mounted to the crest of the surrounding hills, and poured a stream of mellow light upon the waste below. Billiard, his hands still thrust stiffly above his head, now distinguished a few feet in front of him the dark shapes of a dozen or more men, armed with revolvers, clustering around one whom he recognized as Atwater, the runaway post-master of Silver Bow.

"That's all right, Atwater," growled the first speaker, who was evidently leader of the posse. "Tell your tale in court, but be a man and face the music. Fall in, boys!"

For a long time, Billiard watched them as they marched their hapless prisoner back to town, and the leader's words kept ringing in his ears, "Be a man and face the music!" Suddenly a new thought flashed through his brain. Why had he not followed them? It wasn't too late yet. He could still see their forms indistinctly moving across the desert, and by following their lead, would sooner or later reach Silver Bow himself. Stepping out from the clump of Spanish bayonets which had formed his retreat, he set out on a dog-trot in the direction the men had taken, and after a long, rough, weary journey, actually found himself trailing up the familiar path to the Eagles' Nest.

He paused as he reached the children's play house and took a furtive survey of the place. One lone light burned in the low cottage. Probably Tabitha had missed him and was waiting for his return. Supposing she should lick him again for running away?

"Billiard!"

'Twas only a whisper from a rock nearby? but the boy almost screamed aloud in his fright at the unexpectedness of it.

"Sh!" the voice continued. "It's only I,—Glory. I had to go to the drug-store for some alum,—Janie has the croup,—and I saw you coming up the trail. Tabitha hasn't missed you yet. She has been so anxious over the baby. So sneak back to your room and I'll bring you something to eat as soon as I can. Run now! Tabitha will be expecting me."

"But Glory, doesn't anyone know I—" began bewildered Billiard, much taken back at his reception.

"Ran away?" finished Gloriana. "No one but Toady and myself. He won't tell. I made him promise. Of course we'd have had to, if you hadn't come back, but I knew—I thought you would—" How could she tell him that she knew he was too much of a coward to persist in running away? "Scramble into your room as quietly as possible," she continued, "so as not to disturb the others, and I will bring you some supper in a minute or so."

"You're—you're awfully good to a feller," mumbled the abashed boy, wondering how he ever could have disliked the red-haired Glory. "I—I'll not forget it." And as the girl hurried up the path to the kitchen door, he skirted the house till he reached the window of his room, through which he wriggled cautiously and disappeared in the friendly darkness within, thankful that he was home again.



CHAPTER IX

BILLIARD SURRENDERS

Toady kept his promise not to mention Billiard's runaway expedition to anyone else save Gloriana; but being human, he could not keep from twitting his brother occasionally, and the days which followed that memorable night were full of misery for the unhappy boy. His cousins avoided him, Tabitha ignored him, Toady tormented him, and even Gloriana seemed indifferent to his plight. In his fright at discovering himself lost on the desert at night, he had resolved to follow Toady's example and turn over a new leaf. He could not quite make up his mind to confess his sins to eagle-eyed Tabitha, but was really sincere in his desire to do better; and was as surprised as he was disappointed to find that no one paid any attention to the sudden change in his deportment.

"Might as well have kept on being bad," he growled with an injured air one afternoon when a fortnight had passed without any noticeable change in the atmosphere. "Wish I hadn't come back that night. Guess they'd have sung a different tune then! Maybe a coyote would have got me, or I'd have stepped into a rattlesnake's nest and been stung to death. Bet they'd have felt sorry when they found me—," he hesitated. His picture was too vivid, and he shuddered as he thought what a fate would have been his had a rattlesnake bitten him as he tramped across the pathless waste in his flight. "Pretty near dead," he finished finally, unable to endure the thought that they might have found him dead.

"If I had kept on, I'd be in Los Angeles now,—maybe in the navy already. I've a good notion to try again. I could almost go by train, now that my 'lowance has come. Mercy says it takes twelve dollars, and I've got ten. 'T any rate, I could ride as far as that would take me, and—by George, I b'lieve I could beat my way without spending a cent! That's the way tramps travel from city to city."

He winced at the idea of being classed with tramps, and fell to debating whether he would buy a ticket and ride like a gentleman as far as his ten dollars would carry him, or whether he would attempt the hobo's hazardous method of transportation. Before he had arrived at any satisfactory conclusion, he heard the tramp of feet close by, and the lively chatter of voices, and around the bend of the path came Toady with his six cousins. They did not see him at first, half hidden as he was by the heap of ragged rocks on which he lay stretched full length, but even when they did become aware of his presence, they merely glanced indifferently at the lazy figure and passed by without speaking.

Angered at thus being ignored and left out in the cold, Billiard resolved to display no interest in them, either, although he was consumed with curiosity as to where they were bound; but a chance remark of Susie's about being lowered in a bucket overcame his resolve, and he called after them, "Where you going, kids?"

"Don't you wish you knew?" Inez flung back with a saucy toss of her head.

"Up Pike's Peak," said Toady, without so touch as looking back.

"You mean down Ali Baba's cave," suggested Mercedes laughingly.

"Shall we tell him?" asked Irene, relenting as she glanced back at the lonely figure on the rocks.

"He'll just be bad if we let him come," warned Susie.

"He hasn't been bad for a long time," gentle Irene reminded them.

"Aw, what do you s'pose I care where you are going?" sung out Billiard, more hurt by their manner than he cared to acknowledge. "Keep on to Jericho, if you want to."

"We ain't going to Jericho," said Irene, lagging uncertainly behind the others. "Only just across town to that hill over there where is a—a 'bandoned mine. Toady's never seen what one looks like, so we're taking him along to get a peek at it. Have you ever seen a mine?"

Billiard shook his head.

"Tabitha says if we're real good, she'll see if the superintendent won't take us all through the Silver Legion mine before the summer is over; but to-day we're just going to show Toady how the miners go up and down the shaft. He won't b'lieve they use a bucket. Don't you want to come too?"

"Nope, guess not," Billiard answered promptly, though the wistful look in his eyes belied his words.

"It's int'resting," urged Irene, who somehow seemed to understand that Billiard did not really mean what he said.

"Is it a real bucket?" he could not refrain from asking.

"Yes."

"Like a water bucket?"

"Yes, only bigger."

"I sh'd think the miners would fall out."

"Oh, it's big enough so they can't tumble if they mind the rules; but you've got to keep your head down inside, or you'll be killed by the big beans—" she meant beams—"which are built in to hold the dirt from caving in and filling up the mine. Come and see for yourself."

"Well, p'r'aps I will." With a great show of indifference, the boy uncoiled his legs, slid to the ground beside Irene, and hurried with her after the others, now a considerable distance in advance; but the little group had reached their goal and were gingerly peering into the black depths of the abandoned shaft when Billiard and Irene joined them.

"Ugh!" shuddered Mercedes, drawing back with a shiver from the yawning mouth of the hole. "It smells like lizards. I'll bet the bottom of the shaft is full of them."

"It didn't use to be," remarked Susie, dropping a pebble over the brink and listening to the hollow echoes it awoke as it bounded from timber to timber.

"Were you ever down there?" asked Toady in surprise.

"No, but papa was one of the men here when the mine was working."

"What did it quit working for?" ventured Billiard, testing the weather-stained rope still coiled about the winch above the shaft.

"The vein of rich silver stopped all of a sudden and they couldn't make the other ore pay, so they shut down, and the men went to work in other mines, or else moved away."

"How deep is a shaft?" asked Toady, as Susie sent another pebble spinning after the first and counted rapidly until it struck the bottom.

"Some are hundreds of feet deep," replied Mercedes impressively, glad of a chance to air her meagre knowledge of mining affairs. "But this——"

"Is only a hole," finished Inez contemptuously.

"What do you mean by that?" demanded Billiard, mystified. "Ain't this a sure-enough shaft?"

"Oh, yes," Mercedes hastened to inform him; "only 'tisn't the main one. That's all boarded up, and no one can go down it any more. This was dug later. Someone thought there was more silver here, and they made this shaft. It's not very deep——"

"Let's go down it!" proposed Billiard, boyishly eager for such an adventure.

"Oh, horrors!" shrieked Mercedes. "With all those lizards down there?"

"Shucks! Lizards won't hurt a fellow."

"Maybe there are snakes, too," said Rosslyn, hastily backing away from the place.

"We'd have heard them," Billiard answered promptly. "Susie has fired enough rocks at 'em to stir 'em up if there was any there."

"But Tabitha mightn't like it," suggested Irene in troubled tones.

"Did she ever say you couldn't go?"

"N-o."

"Or did your mother?"

"N-o."

"Then what's to hinder?"

"S'posing the rope should bu'st," mused Irene aloud.

"That rope? Why, it's half as big as my arm! Yes, bigger."

"But it has been here a long, long time. Ever since I can remember. Doesn't rope rot?"

"I'll bet that's as strong as iron," boasted Billiard. "There's nothing rotten about it. I'll stump any of you to go down with me."

"Will you go first and see if there are any snakes?" demanded Susie, whose love of adventure was constantly leading her into mischief.

"If you'll promise honor bright to come next."

"I will," Susie rashly promised, her eyes dancing with excitement and eagerness. "Will you go, too, Toady?"

"Sure, but who's going to let us down? I'll bet it takes some work to keep the rope unwinding just right."

"I'll lower you all," proposed Mercedes magnanimously, for the idea of descending into that black, musty hole did not appeal to her in the least, but she could not bear to appear less brave than fly-away Susie.

"You! Pooh! You are just a girl! The bucket would get away from you the first thing, and then where'd the rest of us be? No, I've got a better plan than that. You and Toady and Irene let Susie and Inez and me down first; and after we have had a look at the thing, we'll come up and let you down. How does that suit you?"

"It's a go," Toady readily responded.

"All right," quavered Mercedes.

But Irene held her peace. Nothing could tempt her to crouch in that great, swaying bucket and be dropped into the blackness of that yawning pit, but she did not mean to voice her opinions until the proper moment. So she took her place beside Mercedes and Toady and puffed and panted as the rope slowly unwound, and Billiard, scrooched low in the bucket, disappeared from view. It was hard work and slow, to pay out the rope evenly, but Billiard did not seem at all inclined to be critical, and accepted his rough, jolting descent without a murmur. Had the truth been known, the boy was too nearly paralyzed with fright to notice anything of his surroundings, and more than once he was on the point of signalling for his companions to hoist him to the surface again, but fear of ridicule kept him tongue-tied until it was too late.

With a final jerk and jolt, the bucket stood still, and cautiously opening his eyes for the first time since he had stepped into his queer elevator. Billiard beheld a row of black, shadowy heads hovering over the brink of the aperture, and heard Toady's voice, sounding strangely muffled and far away, call cheerfully, "Well, you've struck bottom, old boy! What does it look like?"

Bottom? Billiard blinked and rubbed his eyes, and peered about him in surprise; but at first in the semi-darkness, he could distinguish nothing. Then as he grew more accustomed to the blackness, he could see before him the mouth of a still blacker cavern, which to his vivid imagination seemed yawning to swallow him up; and he shudderingly shrank back into the friendly protection of the bucket.

"Why don't you answer?" demanded an impatient voice from above.

"Are there snakes and lizards?" called Mercedes.

Snakes! Lizards! Billiard had forgotten them, but with a sigh of relief he realized that there was not a sound of anything stirring about him. "Naw!" he yelled back, trying to make his voice sound brave and scornful. "Guess not. I can't see a thing. Might as well haul me up, 'cause no one could tell what a mine looks like in this blackness."

"Got any matches?" inquired Toady.

Billiard rapidly felt through his pockets. "One," he announced.

"Then here's a candle. Catch it!"

Toady let it drop almost before the words were out of his mouth, and with a tremendous thump it struck poor Billiard on the head before he had caught the significance of the directions from above; and with a yelp of surprise and pain, he tumbled out of the bucket against a timber, which shivered and splintered under his weight. But in some mysterious manner, he found himself in possession of the candle when he had righted himself once more and brushed the rotten wood from his eyes and mouth. He lost no time in striking his one lone match and lighting the slender taper in his hand, much to the relief of the group hovering anxiously about the shaft.

"There!" he heard Susie ejaculate. "I was sure he had killed himself."

"You mean that Toady did," spluttered the indignant Billiard. "What do you think my head is made of—iron?"

"I couldn't tell that it would hit you on the head, could I?" protested the younger boy apologetically. "Why didn't you dodge?"

"Dodge? D'ye think I'm a cat with eyes that see in the dark?"

"Never mind," soothed Irene, who had ventured near enough the curbing to take an occasional peep down into the blackness. "It's too bad it hurt you. Put some cold water on the bump——"

A derisive shout from her sisters stopped her, and even Billiard had to smile, though he felt grateful toward the little twin who was sorry he was hurt. By this time the pale candle flame had ceased to sputter and flicker uncertainly, but burned with a steady light, and with a thrill of exultation Billiard looked curiously about him, relieved to find no snakes or crawly things in the abandoned shaft, and pleased beyond measure to think he had actually braved the terrors of the dark to explore this mysterious place, so he could crow over his brother and cousins because of his courage.

"Say, but it's great down here," he called, venturing just inside the timbered cross-cut and staring at the rocky walls which here and there glistened alluringly. "And there's pecks of silver sticking out of every stone. Why don't you come on down, Toady?"

"Can't till you come up. It's Susie and Inez now. Going, girls?"

"You bet!" cried Susie enthusiastically. "Pull up the bucket and help me in."

Eagerly they turned the creaking old windlass and Susie descended to join Billiard in his underground explorations. Being much lighter than her cousin, it was easier to lower her down the shaft; and still easier with Inez in the bucket; but once the trio were safely at the bottom, the little group above became all impatience for their turn. Mercy's courage had returned as she saw how simple an operation it was to let down the loaded bucket, and even Irene began to feel a desire to explore the mysteries of the abandoned mine with the rest of her mates. Only Rosslyn and Janie hung back, but no one cared. In fact, it simplified matters not to have to bother with such little tads; but it was a nuisance to have Billiard linger so long when he knew the others were just dying to go down.

At last Toady could resist temptation no longer. "I'm going, too," he announced with determination.

"Before Billiard comes up?"

He nodded grimly.

"But s'posing you're too heavy for just Irene and me," suggested Mercedes.

"I shall slide down the rope. I'd rather do that than have you drop me or let the rope out too fast."

"But—how can you?" Mercedes demurred.

"It's so far down there," said Irene.

"Aw, in gym work at school we slide down poles and bars and all sorts of things. It oughtn't to be any harder with a rope. I'm going to try, anyway."

Silently but enviously, the girls watched him spit on his palms, test the rope, and finally let himself slowly down into the shaft, with legs wrapped tightly about his slender, swaying support, and hands grasping the rough strands with a desperate grip, for, too late, he realized what a horrible fate would be his if he should fall; but when he would have gone back, he could not.

"How in the world will we ever get them up?" whispered Irene wonderingly; but before Mercedes could frame a reply, there was a crash from below, a cry, a grating sound of falling rock and then hideous, horrible silence.

"Toady!" shrieked the girls in frenzy, "did you fall?"

"No," came back a muffled answer. "I'm all right, but we have knocked down some boards and can't get out."

"Can't get out!" they repeated dully.

"No. Run for help! Our candle has gone out and it's as black as pitch in here."

"Who'll I go for?" wailed panic-stricken Mercedes, while Irene danced frantically around the shaft and wrung her hands as she chanted, "They'll smother, they'll smother, they'll smother!"

"Anyone, but hustle up!" yelled Toady impatiently, for his companions in the disaster had uttered not a sound since their first wild scream, and a horrible fear that they were hurt or even killed gripped his heart.

However, little Rosslyn was already half-way down the mountain, fairly skimming over the rocks and rubbish, and almost before the distracted girls had recovered their senses enough to be of any aid to the prisoners, the little fellow stumbled across the threshold of the Eagles' Nest, gasping, "They've caved in—Bill and Toady and the girls. I guess maybe they're dead by now!"

Tabitha was on her feet in an instant and the pan of potatoes which she was peeling went spinning across the floor. "Where, Rosslyn?"

Mutely he pointed, too spent for words; and the girl, remembering the old, unprotected shaft of the abandoned Selfridge mine, flew to the rescue of her brood, pausing only to snatch a lantern from a peg on the wall, and a handful of matches from the pantry shelf.

Mercedes had disappeared when she reached the spot of the accident, but Irene was tugging desperately at the huge windlass, slowly winding up the heavy bucket, moaning all the while in a distracted undertone, while tears of fright trickled down her dirty face. So busy was she that she never heard the patter of Tabitha's feet behind her, and the first intimation she had of help at hand was when the older girl jerked her back from the mouth of the shaft, released the half-raised bucket, and sent it hurtling back into the pit once more.

"Go for the assayer," she commanded hoarsely, seizing the heavy rope with both hands, and preparing to descend as Toady had done. "Run, hurry! And then get Dr. Hayes. We may need him."

The windlass creaked and groaned, the rope swayed and strained, as Tabitha slid out of sight, while Irene raced madly away to do her bidding. Unmindful of bumps or bruises, and almost unaware that her hands were cruelly burned and torn from her too rapid descent, the black-eyed girl had scarcely touched the bottom of the shaft before she had her lantern lighted and was digging like mad at the fallen rock and debris which almost completely blocked the entrance of the narrow cross-cut.

"Who is it?" called a voice from behind the barrier.

"Thank God!" breathed Tabitha, working with renewed fury. "That you, Toady?"

"Bet you!" came the cheering response.

"Are you hurt?"

"Nope!"

"Where are the others?"

"Here!"

"Safe?"

"I—don't know. I can feel 'em, but they don't answer."

At that instant, without any warning, one of the fallen timbers slipped from its position, and revealed a narrow aperture into the crosscut, through which Tabitha caught a glimpse of Toady's white face and the gleam of Susie's scarlet dress.

"Can you crawl through?" she demanded.

"Yes."

"Carefully now, so as not to start another landslide. There! Now, can you help me make the opening bigger?"

But other aid was at hand. The assayer with three men from the town had arrived and the rescue of the quintette at the bottom of the shaft was speedily effected.

"Are they—" Tabitha's voice faltered as she stood at last on the rocky mountainside and looked down into the still, white faces of Billiard, Susie and Inez. How could she ever have let them out of her sight? How could she ever break the news to the mother?

"Merely stunned," replied the doctor, examining the victims with rapid, practised fingers. "See, the girls are coming to their senses. It's nothing short of a miracle that— Hello, Susie, what did you say?"

"It wasn't gold at all," murmured the child faintly; "just quartz, but he wouldn't b'lieve it."

Billiard opened his eyes slowly. "She says gold don't look like gold in a mine, but I got a pocketful of—" His sentence ended in a groan of pain, and the hand he was trying to thrust into his trousers fell limply at his side.

"Aha!" cried the doctor. "Let's see what we have here."

"A break?" questioned the assayer.

"Bad sprain, I think, but it will keep the young man out of mischief for one while. Are your legs all right? Then I reckon we better move on to town."

So it happened that no serious results came from their latest prank, but Tabitha, in her thankfulness that all her brood was safe and sound, fell into a fit of bitter weeping as soon as the children were back in the Eagles' Nest once more and the rescuers had departed.

"Don't," begged Janie tearfully. "I loves 'oo! I was dood!"

"Please don't," pleaded the other sisters in great distress. "We'll never do it again."

"It was all my fault," cried Toady contritely. "I'm ever so sorry."

"It was not," muttered Billiard, wincing with the pain in his arm, but truly repentant. "I dared 'em to go. Honest, Tabby, I was to blame! Will you—will you—er—forgive me? I'm horribly—sorry. Won't you try me again?"

So sincere was his tone, so straightforward his confession, so manly his bearing, that Tabitha could not fail to be convinced of his earnestness of purpose, and drying her eyes, she took Billiard's proffered hand in a hearty grasp, saying with quivering, smiling lips, "Let's all try each other again."

"Let's!" cried the rest of the brood; and they meant it, every one.



CHAPTER X

SUSANNE ENTERTAINS A CALLER

"Let's make some candy. It's too hot to play."

Susie and the twins were sitting idly on a great, shaggy, redwood log in the scanty shade of the house, fanning themselves as briskly as their tired arms would move, and longing for the cool of sundown.

Irene looked startled at the older sister's suggestion, and began, "Tabitha——"

"Oh, I know she made us promise not to get into mischief," Susie impatiently interrupted her, "but taffy ain't mischief. We'll make a big batch so's there will be plenty for the others when they get back."

"It's so hot," objected Inez, as Susie turned to her for approval.

"We'll use the gasolene stove."

"But you've never lighted it. How'll you——"

"Oh, Irene, you make me tired! Don't you s'pose I know how? Haven't I watched mamma and Tabitha hundreds of times? Guess I can manage it if Mercy can. Come on, Inez!"

"Do you know how to make taffy?" questioned the undaunted Irene, following the other two into the sweltering kitchen.

"Course! Molasses and sugar and vinegar and butter. Ask me something hard."

"Tabitha measures 'em."

"So shall I. You go fetch the m'lasses jug and a cup. Inez, bring the vinegar and butter, and I'll measure things after I get the stove a-going." Mopping her face and bustling energetically about the small room, Susie marshalled her forces and set to work with contagious enthusiasm. All three donned huge aprons, hunted up long-handled spoons, and rattled among the neat array of pots and pans until it sounded as if a whole regiment had been turned loose in the kitchen.

The stove was lighted without any trouble, much to the relief of the breathless trio, and the candy making was soon in progress. Sugar was measured and molasses spilled with reckless abandon over table, floor and stove, in their hurry to get their delectable sweet on cooking before the rest of the family should return from their day's outing and interfere, for, secretly, each be-aproned girl, paddling in the pot with her sticky spoon and dribbling syrup wherever she ran, felt that she was not strictly obeying Tabitha's parting injunction, and was anxious to have a peace offering ready when she returned with the rest of her brood.

They had gone for a drive to the river, and as there was not room in the light wagon for all the large family, Susie and the twins had been bribed to remain at home with the promise of ice-cream sodas at the little drug-store. However, that unusual treat had disappeared long ago down the three eager throats, and they had begun to rue their bargain when Susie's inspiration fired them with enthusiasm once more.

"I wish we had some nuts," panted perspiring Inez, stirring the bubbling mess in the kettle so vigorously that a great spatter flew up and struck Irene on the hand.

"Ooo!" screeched the unfortunate victim. "What made you do that?"

"I didn't do it a-purpose," indignantly denied her twin. "Stop your jumping and suck it off."

Irene obediently thrust the smarting wound into her mouth, and immediately let out another howl of anguish, for the sticky mass had burned the little tongue sadly, and the tears rained down the rosy cheeks unchecked while the dismayed sisters racked their brains for some soothing remedy to deaden the pain.

"Try this," suggested Susie, hurrying out of the pantry with a can of baking powder in her hand, vaguely recalling that some kind of white powder used in cooking was good for burns.

"I will not," sobbed Irene angrily. "You don't know what it will do. You're just guessing."

"Gloriana put coal oil on Toady's foot," timidly began Inez, half distracted at having been the cause of all her sister's woe.

"And you think I'll stick my tongue in that?" roared the usually gentle twin so savagely that both her companions fell silent, perplexed at the unhappy situation.

Meanwhile the bubbling syrup had been forgotten, and with an ominous hiss and a pungent odor, the seething mass boiled over the top of the kettle and was promptly licked up by the eager flames of the stove. A great cloud of smoke filled the kitchen, and the paralyzed girls awoke to their danger with a sickening horror.

"Oh, oh, oh!" they screamed in frenzy. "The house will catch! We'll all be burned up! What will mamma say?"

"Hush! Shut up! Give me your apron!" commanded an authoritative voice behind them, and a big, shabby stranger rushed past them, snatched Susie's apron, gave a deft twist to the flaming burner, seized the smoking kettle, and vanished through the kitchen door before any of the sisters realized what had happened. He was soon back with the blackened pot in his hands and a reassuring smile on his lips. "It's all right, kids," he announced cheerily, noting the terror in their faces. "No harm's done. It won't take but a few minutes to clean up that stove and pan and no one will be the wiser. You are housekeeping by yourselves to-day, I see." His quick, restless, eager eyes had noted the tell-tale signs of mischief about him before he hazarded that remark.

"Yes, oh, yes!" breathed Susie in great relief. "Tabitha's taken the rest of the children down to the river, and we're all alone."

"The river?"

"The Colorado. We often go there when we can get the assayer's horses, but the wagon won't hold us all, so we three stayed at home to-day."

"And had ice-cream sodas for being good," added Irene.

"We wanted to make some taffy," mourned Inez, ruefully eyeing the blackened mass which the mysterious stranger was deftly removing from the stove and floor.

"'Twas so lonesome here by ourselves," supplemented Susie apologetically, remembering that she was responsible for the candy suggestion.

"So 'while the cat's away the mice will play'," chuckled the man, beginning a vigorous scraping of the sticky kettle.

"Why, how did you know her name was Catt?" cried Irene in amazement.

"Goosie!" exclaimed Susie sarcastically.

"He didn't know. That's not what he meant. But truly, mister, I don't think Tabitha would have minded a bit if our candy had come out all right. As 'tis, we've wasted such a lot of m'lasses and sugar that I reckon she'll scold——"

"If she ever finds it out," broke in Inez.

"That's it—if she ever finds it out," chuckled the man again. "Who is this mysterious Tabitha that you are so scared of?"

"We ain't scared of her," protested Susie loyally. "Her name is Tabitha Catt, and she's taking care of us while mamma is with papa at the hospital in Los Angeles. She's only a girl herself, but we promised to mind her so mamma could go, and not fret about us all the time, and we're trying hard to keep our promise."

"But sometimes we forget," said truthful Irene. "We oughtn't to have made that candy, 'cause we told her we wouldn't get into mischief while she was gone. I guess that's why it burnt up."

"I guess it's no such thing!" Inez contradicted hotly. "You made such a fuss over nothing that Susie and me forgot to watch it and it boiled over."

"I guess you'd have made a fuss if I'd blistered your hand like you did mine," cried Irene in great indignation, suddenly remembering her grievance, and affectionately regarding the white blister on her plump hand. "Then on top of that you told me to suck it off, when you knew it was boiling hot and would skin my whole mouth."

"Tut, tut!" interrupted the stranger, seeing that a quarrel was imminent. "Now don't get mad all at once. I've a proposition to make to you——"

"A what?" asked Susie, glad she had taken no part in the flare-up between the twins.

"A bargain. I'll make you a mess of candy that'll pop your eyes out if you will give me a square meal,—something to eat, you know, and plenty of it. I'm hungry as the deuce, and candy ain't very filling. Is it a go?"

Susie looked at her crestfallen companions, and they looked at her.

"There were no potatoes left from dinner," began Irene.

"But there's any number of cans of stuff in the pantry," said Inez hastily.

"Salmon and sardines and veal loaf and corned beef and vegetables," added Susie hopefully, yet fearful lest the menu should not prove sufficiently tempting to the queer, unexpected, unknown visitor. "And Tabitha cut the cake for dinner."

"Besides cookies and crackers and bread," murmured Irene, seeing reproof in her sisters' eyes, and feeling that she had been inhospitable to their hungry guest.

"Good!" promptly answered the man. "I reckon we'll make out. Just open a tin of salmon, make a pot of strong coffee, and bring on your bread and cake and sauce—lots of it, now, for I haven't had a bite to eat since last night. Lost my money, you know, and it hurts a decent fellow's pride to beg."

The trio nodded sympathetically, and hurried to do his bidding, while he rapidly measured out fresh supplies of sugar and syrup, and briskly began stirring the mass over the fire, talking all the while. "I just happened to be passing when I smelled your stuff burning, and thinks I, now there's trouble in there. Just then you all commenced screaming, and I was sure the house was a-fire, so I rushed in to help. Good gracious, but I was scared for a minute when I see the flames jumping so high. You might have had an explosion any minute."

"Yes," gravely agreed the girls, the look of terror returning to their eyes.

"If it hadn't been for you, I reckon the house would have burned down, and it's the only one we've got," said Irene.

He nodded. "I understand, and so I thought you wouldn't begrudge me a bite to eat, after I had put out the fire and cleaned up the clutter so Tabitha wouldn't know that you had been in mischief."

"Course we're glad to give you something to eat," Inez again hastily interrupted. "'Specially when you are making us some more candy. Are you ready for your—lunch—now?"

"In a jiffy. Just grease a pan for this dope and I'll pour it out to cool. Bet it beats yours all hollow. There! Set it in the window—so! Now, I'll sample your larder. Looks fine and smells bully. Which store is best here in town?"

"Brinkley's," promptly answered the trio, with longing eyes fixed upon the golden flood of syrup cooling in the window.

"Though Dawley's is bigger," added Irene.

"Do they make much money?"

"They ought to. Prices are high enough," answered Susie with a comically grown-up air.

"Most of the miners trade at Dawley's, 'cause he don't hurry 'em so about paying," said Inez naively. "But the Carsons and Catts and Dr. Hayes, and those folks buy at Brinkley's, 'cause his stuff is nicer."

"We did trade there," began Irene, but Susie interrupted, "Most of our stuff comes from Los Angeles now. It's cheaper to trade that way, and anyhow, papa knows the man real well, and now that he's sick in the hospital, he doesn't have to worry about pay day all the time, for this man will wait till he is well enough to work again."

"When is pay day?" casually inquired the man. "I mean how often does it come?"

"Once a month—the fifteenth."

The stranger's eyes glittered with satisfaction, and he muttered, "The fifteenth,—that's to-morrow."

"What did you say?" asked Susie.

"I was just thinking," he replied, glancing uneasily from one bright face to the other to see if any of the children had caught his indiscreet remark. "By the way, who lives in that little, unpainted house on the edge of town?" He pointed vaguely over his shoulder, and the sisters looked at each other in bewilderment.

"The pest house?" suggested Irene.

"The Ramsey place?" said Inez questioningly.

"The haunted house?" ventured Susie. "You see, there are so many unpainted houses on the edge of town."

"The haunted house!" laughed the stranger incredulously. "Whoever heard tell of a haunted house in a mining camp!"

"Silver Bow has one," stoutly asserted the twins.

"Where? Which one? I confess I am curious."

"It's the last one on the East End Lode," replied Susie with dignity, feeling that the reputation of her town was at stake.

"The queer old shack beyond Tabitha's," added Inez.

"There are only three houses in that hollow," explained Irene. "The Carson's big house, the Catt's littler one, and this haunted house."

"What haunts it?" jeered the man, pushing back from the table and glancing sharply down the trail toward town.

"A—a ghost," the twins half whispered.

"A man killed himself there once," said Susie.

"Or was murdered," shuddered Inez.

"Or else he just died," put in practical-minded Irene. "Anyway, they found him there dead."

"And sometimes now folks hear queer things there."

"And see lights."

"Tabitha never has," Irene declared. "And she lives nearest it."

"Well, 't any rate, it's haunted and no one ever goes there now, not even Tabitha, who ain't afraid of a thing."

The stranger rose slowly to his feet, yawned as if bored by their chatter, picked up his hat, and started for the door; then paused, and casually surveying the pan of taffy on the window sill, remarked, "Believe if I was you, I'd eat that all up before the rest of the folks get back. There's just about enough for three, and I've a notion that Miss Tabitha will think you didn't keep your promise very well if she ever finds out how near you came to setting the house a-fire. She'll never dare trust you again. It might be well not to mention that I dropped in, either. Tramps aren't often welcome visitors, even in a mining camp, you know. But I appreciate your dinner, and thank you kindly. Good-day, ladies."